ProPublica: How some insurers use patient data against patients

ProPublica quotes Robert Greenwald, faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, in a story about how insurance companies use the data they collect from enrollees. For example, as way of avoiding potentially high costs expensive patients — so-called cherry picking

by Nora Valdez. Used with permission.

Greenwald said: “Insurance companies still cherry-pick, but now they’re subtler. The center analyzes health insurance plans to see if they discriminate. He said insurers will do things like failing to include enough information about which drugs a plan covers — which pushes sick people who need specific medications elsewhere. Or they may change the things a plan covers, or how much a patient has to pay for a type of care, after a patient has enrolled. Or, Greenwald added, they might exclude or limit certain types of providers from their networks — like those who have skill caring for patients with HIV or hepatitis C.”